If you’re planning to drink a lot for Christmas Eve on December 31st, you should know that your immune system is not easy. According to a study conducted by American researchers and published in the scientific journal Alcohol, after an episode of binge-drinking, the immune system gets carried away and then loses its effectiveness cruelly.
Thus, in addition to increasing their risk of injury due to the state of intoxication, a person who is too alcoholic risks losing some of their white blood cells, and will therefore take longer to recover from their potential trauma.
The study was carried out on 8 women and 7 men, with an average age of 27 years. Each participant drank between four and five shots of vodka, to meet the definition of binge drinking.alcohol : 0.8gr of alcohol per liter of blood, ie the equivalent of 4 to 5 doses of alcohol ingested in less than 2 hours.
Blood samples were then taken by the scientists 20 minutes after ingestion, then 2 to 5 hours after the peak of intoxication. These stages correspond roughly to those in which alcoholic patients arrive in the emergency departments.
The tests showed that the activity of the immune system was significantly increased 20 minutes after taking the vodka shots. The three types of white blood cells were in greater numbers than normal. Increased levels of cytokine proteins are also visible, and signal to the immune system to gain power.
However, this effect does not last, and even gradually reverses. Thus, 2 to 5 hours after the peak of intoxication, there are fewer white blood cells and few cytokines: the immune system becomes less and less active.
By weakening, the defenses of the alcoholic person are not enough any more to protect them from infections, and slow down the healing of wounds.
This, according to Dr. Majid Afshar, lead author of the study, explains the delayed healing of wounds and bone fractures seen in patients facing an episode of intoxication. These same patients would also increase their vulnerability to pneumonia or even nosocomial diseases contracted during hospital stays.
Read also :
Alcohol: Putting Calories on Bottles Encourages Drinking Less
A drug to reduce the neurological effects of “ binge-drinking ”
Teenagers: sanctioned binge-drinking
